(Bloomberg) -- Retrophin Inc. shares plummeted as much as 32% in early trading on Thursday after an experimental therapy from the drugmaker missed the main and key secondary goals in a late-stage study. That may signal an opportunity to pick up shares, according to one analyst.
“Selloff overdone, buy,” Nomura Instinet’s Christopher Marai advised clients as the stock tumbled below $12 a share. All the sell-side analysts tracked by Bloomberg rate the company the equivalent of a buy. Marai is among the most bullish with a Street high 12-month price target of $57.
The biotech -- founded by Martin Shkreli, the jailed “pharma bro” who was convicted in 2017 for defrauding investors -- had its biggest intraday drop since February 2013. Fosmetpantotenate failed to work any better than placebo in a rare neurological disease known as pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration or PKAN.
“This program has not represented substantial valuation in RTRX shares, given its speculative nature,” Marai said. Retrophin has $10 a share in cash and with a base business of $180 million for 2019, data for another key drug -- sparsentan -- accounts for another $14 of Marai’s price target.
Retrophin is studying sparsentan in two diseases linked to end-stage kidney disease. The company said in a statement that it was focused on advancing these programs. While U.S. and European regulators have granted sparsentan orphan drug status, those results are not expected until 2021.
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